Win Queen Of Broken Hearts Picturized By Cassandra King Disseminated As Paper Copy

queen in this novel is Claire who is a divorce counselor, Having lost her husband in a mysterious death, she has put her heart on hold for a long time, When her own daughter is in need of her guidance, she does her best to help her heal her broken heart and finds her own has healed as well.
Too long. Nothing earth shattering but an ok read, I just got this book from my favorite thrift store for books, As I'm reading the reviews, I notice that there are two reviews that are exactly the same one by someone named Alice, one by someone named Sharon Reyes.
I left comments on both, What is up with that Is this done to bring the star level up It really makes me wonder about the book and about the author and I'm not sure I'll even read it now.

What do you all think about this Picked this one up because one of those whattoreadnext algorithms recommended King's The Same Sweet Girls to me and that one's always out at the library I didn't know beforehand that King was married to Pat Conroy, who has his flaws as a writer but who I will also defend to the death, because I believe that he can turn a phrase like nobody's business.
The first two lines of Prince of Tides still give me goosebumps after all these years,

But this is not about Pat Conroy, this is about Cassandra King, and sadly: King is no Conroy, While this book had the same twisted narrative structure, relying heavily on pasttense flashbacks to flesh out character and motivation, and the same dark, morbid, ultimately hopeful plot conventions that Conroy often relies on, the fact of the matter is that Conroy can flatout write and Cassandra King can't.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it a whole lot, even if I found the protagonist completely unsympathetic it was a pageturner and I wanted to know how she was going to screw up her life and the lives around her next, so clearly King's doing a little

bit of something right.


But it's not even purple prose, because it's not that inventive, It was just a completely serviceable style of writing, and the plot and the supporting characters, at least, deserved better than that, Unfair to compare a writer to her husband, perhaps, but I can't help but do it Conroy's a master of the detail, a master of grounding a book so firmly in a sense of place that you can smell the salt marshes while you're reading his novel in Chicago, and I didn't get any of that with this book.
I'll probably pick The Same Sweet Girls up if I ever manage to find it in at the library, but this was a disappointment.
I wanted to love it, and I mostly found it boring and uninspired, Not for me Excellent

I love Cassandra King's books, and this did not disappoint, A sequel would be welcomed, as I hated to leave these characters! Its hard to believe that I added this book to my TBR list in, and I just finished it.
It just goes to show that books have their own time and place, Its a good reminder to go back and revisit my TBR list and blow the virtual dust off to take a peek inside, You need to read this in the garden with an iced tea or mint julep to sip on, The language is evocotive of Southern society and the environment and it flows with description and dialogue, The pace can feel a bit slow unless you have the time to enjoy it its not a quick read, There is a huge cast of characters but interestingly it doesn't feel crowded as can often be the case, They are well developed and complex but the relationships between the characters and in general are really the heart of this book,
"Queen of Broken Hearts" by Cassandra King is one of the best books I've read in a long time, It is poignant, uplifting, tearjerking and insightful,

When I opened the book to the first page, my heart plummeted, First person point of view not my favorite, And I'd just finished another review book in first person that I most definitely did not like, Not only was this one in first person, but present tense a double whammy, To say I started reading with a negative attitude in place would be a truism,

Then the story took over and I forgot about the point of view, While the present tense did occasionally intrude, the story was so well written that I couldn't count that against it, Like "Steel Magnolias" or "Fried Green Tomatoes", this is a story of the deep South, but it touches on themes that affect us all.


The story is set in a small Alabama coastal town and centers around Clare, a therapist who's got her own problems, Clare, a widow, runs group sessions and retreats for women going through divorce, Her work is everything to her, even taking precedence over the two men who want her as more than just a friend, She can dish out advice, but when it comes to taking it herself, Clare has more than a few problems,

Full of quirky characters, "Queen of Broken Hearts" will make you laugh and cry, cheer and boo, but most of all, it will make you keep reading to the very end.
The story has a touch of romance and all the angst you can handle as you get a peek at the lives of the inhabitants of Fairhope.
This one is definitely a keeper,
Southern women helping each other get over lost loves, bad marriages and hard times, Heartwarming novel about the residents of Fairhope, Alabama in their individual journeys of love and selfdiscovery, The writing felt seamlessboth in plot progress and character development, King weaved the plot back and forth from present to past with a healthy dose of foreshadowing about how her husband Mack died, Character development was robust, I felt like I knew each character and how they would respond, I enjoyed all of the eclectic characters but especially Clare Ballenger, the narrator and levelheaded divorce therapist who fends off two hunky but completely opposite love interests: suave cousininlaw Rye Ballenger and gruffy yet sensitive, Lex “Man of Maine” Yarmouth.
I loved the dynamic and funny dialogue between Clare, her best friend Dory, and her daughter Haley, who dropped some clever marrying your cousin jokes with her mom.
King even interlaced some relationship therapy tidbits that I found helpful, too! Although King had neatly wrapped ending, I wish the novel continued so I could find out if Austin ever got his due justice and how Clares new romantic relationship developed.
Queen of Broken Hearts was exactly what I needed at this time in my reading life, After an intense, and troubling read not to mention an intense, troubling time in our nation's history, I wanted simply to enjoy a book.
Enter Cassandra King. She is a good, Southern writer, Her characters are colorful though somewhat predictable and her plotlines are engaging,

In Queen of Broken Hearts, the protagonist, Clare, is a therapist working primarily with clients who are at crossroads in their marriages.
She's more of a "divorce" counselor than a marriage counselor, often helping her clients to heal from their failed trips down the aisle, Professionally, she's on point. Personally, she's a mess. Still reeling from her husband's apparent suicide, Clare could use some introspection of her own, Queen of Broken Hearts is Clare's journey of reflection and of healing, Though the book takes a rather dim view of marriage, it celebrates sisterhood and the bonds among strong women,

Southern Alabama setting, Today I finished the LONG,page novel by Cassandra King who happens to be the wife of Pat Conroy, one of the most talented writers living todayIf you have never read The Prince of Tides, it should be on your short list called The Queen of Broken Hearts.
The novel is set in Alabama and is filled with deeply drawn, flawed, but lovable, characters, The protagonist is a widow, in her late's or earlys, whose husband died in the woods near their home, when the gun he was carrying went off.
That is all we know until nearly the end, Was it suicide or an accident There was no foul play, The couple had been madly in love but there were demons that, perhaps, needed tending, Claire is a therapist who counsels women going through divorce, She runs retreats for these women to help them mourn the loss of their marriages, and to find a way to move on, Claire's best friend, Dory, Dory's husband, Son, and two men who vie for Claire's heart play pivotal roles in the story, as does her mother in law, CatherineZoe, and her step daughter, Hailey, whose own marriage may not be all she thought.

I loved the descriptions of the thick and plush Alabama countryside, with its unique odors of warm marshes in the deep south, odors which no one can quite imagine if they have not been there.
I have, so I could easily relate to the descriptions, There is so much love and caring among these characters, I felt part of their community, felt their losses and joys for the time I spent reading the novel, The book could have been shorter, but I supposed King needed to make it lengthy to include all her detailed descriptions, dialogues and backstories.
It was a good book, though not as great as the ratings might indicate, Audiobook mental health break . narrated by Laura Hicks
Ive never read or listen to a book by Cassondra King until now,

Enchanted unpaved streets little cottages are hidden from view making them look safe huge magnolia and oak trees an historic town a little utopia in the middle of the deep South in Alabama.
A perfect society! . Ha .

Divorce women are starting out on a new journey and therapist Clare Ballenger has focused exclusively on helping these divorce women mend their broken hearts and land back on their feet stronger than ever.

As we get to know Clare more intimately, we soon realized that she does not follow the same advice she gives to her clients.
The last thing she wants is to fall in love again since suffering the loss and grief from when her own husband died in a tragic accident.


There are numerous characters yet easy to keep track of them all,
Clare has two men interested in her: Rye who was her husbands close friend and Lex, a Yankee from Maine,
Dory is Clares best friend but Clare cant stand her wealthy husband named Son,
Haley is Clares daughter married to a jerk named Austin


So, mostly its the women in this novel whom this story centers around, Between the writing the dialogue and the exaggeration in a good way, there may be many relationship problems going on but we definitely get that SOUTHERN BELLE COMMUNITY FEELING in this novel,

A little long some parts I liked more than others I laughed out loud several times I drifted off at times too too much chatter about doves and their white wings, but for whatever reason I mostly liked it nice gardenlistening.
. .
Lightness sweetness a little gripping not too much haha: not too much and a happily ever after ending,

.rating Fun and light hearted This book was frustrating the whole way through, After reading how she got her ideas, I can understand why, Evidently, things kept happening in her life, and King just decided to throw them in and change the direction of the book each time.
That is how it felt, . . too many interesting characters that never get developed, It was very disjointed, and the ending was not very satisfying, It had potential, but never made me care enough to want to continue, or if I started to care, the plot jumped somewhere else.
I approached Cassandra Kings Queen of Broken Hearts with so much raw anticipation, I had just finished and loved Kings The Sunday Wife, I was eager to get caught up her in lovely prose and finely wrought characters again, In that respect, Queen of Broken Hearts does not disappoint, The novel is the tale of Clare Ballenger, a celebrated psychoanalyst specializing in divorce, We see Clare as she navigates her own relationships following her husbands unexpected death, The book is full of insight into human interaction, dealing with grief, and the logistics of starting over, King has given us all a primer of life with this book, Using engaging characters, we take the journey willingly, eager to reach the outcome, knowing we will be enriched, But ultimately, I was not as enchanted with this novel as I was with The Sunday Wife, King chooses to tell the story in first person, present tense, This gives it an immediacy, an urgency, But darn it, there is so much backstory about each of her participants we, as readers, need to know, that she frequently lapses into past tense.
And thats where it bogged down for me, Yes, I know that all that backstory was needed, that I could never have understood Clare and her story without it, But just when the plot gets flowing nicely, it is interrupted by explanation of what went before, And that was a story killer for me, For others, Im sure it wont matter, so it certainly shouldnt be a reason to not pick up this admirable book, And I truly recommend it to anyone who has suffered a divorce, One other thing, I love Kings irony in naming her protagonist Clare, For this woman who sees such clarity in others predicaments sees very little in her own, But go with her on her journey and find out if that clarity ever shows up for this aptly named character, and returns with another compulsively readable novel Loved the novel! It made me wish I could go on a retreat for women after I had my heart broken.
It have reallife situate when it came to marriage and relationships, When I as reading this novel, I could feel the characters pain, Losing your boyfriend or husband to cheating is hard especially if you have children with that person, Queen of Broken Hearts teaches that you have to find yourself and let go of pain,
That you can start over, There are people that go through the same thing, Queen of Broken Hearts themes could be: Forgiveness, starting over, letting go, being happy and inlove with yourself, overcoming death and relationships, and marriages.
Also, being brave and standing your own ground, the power a woman holds, Also, men going through the same thing as women,

I highly recommend Queen of Broken Hearts, .